Near Death Experiences: Figurative & Nonfigurative
by xxPastelSTARxx
Summary: CH3 uploaded! *Winter Drumline Special ~_^*Scary things can happen during band tournaments, rehersals, sectionals...read the scary experiences told from a SHHS student band person (i am NOT a band geek! HONEST! ;_; don't you believe me?)
1. Falling and Watching Your Life Flash Be...

Near Death Experiences: Figurative and Nonfigurative by SailorSakura9  
  
Author's notes:  
  
These are all TRUE! Although some instances maybe overly exaggerated. . .heh heh heh. . .  
  
Disclaimer: My stories, my characters (actually, they're real people, I might change the names to protect the innocent. Oh yeah, if I used you as a character and you want to be recognized, tell me and I'll put your first and/or last name, if you want, or if you want to go by another name), plagiarize and die.  
  
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Falling. . .and Watching Your Life Flash Before Your Eyes *REVISED!!*  
  
Fact: Falling is very embarrassing  
  
But it's absolutely hilarious ^_^ (and I don't mean it in a bad way, I mean it's funny when you look back at it ^^;; please don't kill me)  
  
Fiction: people in band will forget that you ever fell in the first place.  
  
Near Death Experience numero uno:  
  
It was a dusty Saturday afternoon. It was hot and the sun beat down like a mallet on a concert bass. You can expect the oodles of fun the South Hills Band & Colorguard had as they stood in the heat, waiting to perform. The year was 2001, our second or third field show (I believe).  
  
"South Hills High School, you may enter the stadium."  
  
The band and colorguard members walked. . .*ahem* marched, proud, graceful, and in unison, into the stadium. The band stood in an arch to warm up, the colorguard prepared their flags and set them in place, and the pit was frantically getting their instruments in the right place.  
  
"South Hills High School, the judges are ready."  
  
Their heartbeats began to quicken as the band director stood the podium and lifted his hands, preparing to conduct.  
  
"One, Two. One, Two, Ready And!"  
  
The first movement was in motion. The song was going well, no wonder why the theme was "Moment of Glory". Then it was the drum solo and the cymbal players were doing their little visuals, going smoothly, smoothly, smoothly, and SUDDENLY!  
  
::trip, fall, and gets back up:: damn, right in mid-visual too.  
  
One of our cymbal players fell when he (excuse my phrasing of choice) flashed his cymbals. So you could see the reflection of a crash cymbal shine straight at your eyes, then fall in the blink of an eye!  
  
Poor kid, I would have felt sorry for him if I didn't dislike him for being stuck up. So I guess he deserved that. . .nah, that would be too mean. It was kind of sad, though, I mean, he felt that it was his fault that our band got third place. Third place isn't that bad. . .  
  
Near Death Experience suji ni:  
  
The sun was beginning to set and a small breeze blew. The pit was staring behind the bleachers and staring at the band before them. The band and colorguard members stood in straight lines with their heads and instruments/flags up.  
  
"South Hills High School, you may enter the stadium."  
  
Confidently the band and colorguard marched into the field with the pit running beside them [1]. Again, the band set up in an arc and warmed up while the colorguard set their flags and the pit setting up their instruments [2].  
  
"South Hills High School, the judges are ready."  
  
This year, we had our drum major conduct (which is great, cuz Wendy is cool! I'm not sucking up. . .honest! I'm a band geek too! Don't you believe me?! ::pleads:: ), so she stepped up on the podium and cupped her hands to her lips.  
  
"BAND TEN HUT!"  
  
Everyone was at dress center and staring at Wendy. She turned around and saluted the crowed. As they screamed her name and cheered us good luck, she turned around, took off her hat, and gently placed it on the bottom of the podium by her feet.  
  
She lifted her hands and prepared to conduct.  
  
"One, Two. One, Two, Ready And."  
  
The show was going great until. . . bum! Bum! BUM! One of our tenors [3] fell and he, unfortunately, was the first in a line. So when he fell, he couldn't get up until the whole drumline marched/stepped over him. But hey, we got second out of. . .all the night bands! W00t!  
  
The next day, my section leaders were making up some little jokes during zero period (no offence to the fallen tenor)  
  
Section Leader 1: Yeah, if I were a judge I would probably be like, ' Oh. Ow. Ooo. . .that's gonna leave a mark.'  
  
Section Leader 2: Yes, and if I were a judge I would say, 'Points would be severely deducted.'  
  
Everyone started cracking up after that.  
  
One of the snare players also said, "Oh yeah, I bet you the judge was sympathetic, so on our next tournament, we should all just fall down at the same time, even the pit."  
  
  
  
Near Death Experience number 3 (told from a different perspective):  
  
I was telling one of my friends from another school (during the same tournament) how one of our tenor players fell and she was like, "Oh yeah. On our last tournament, some flute player guy fell down too, and it was soooo sad because he fell down, and he tried to get up, but he fell down again!"  
  
I told my other friend from another school (during Chinese school) about the same incident (flute player guy falling twice) and he said, "Oh yeah! I was there. It was so hilarious! He would like :: trip, falls over, with his hands somewhat flailing, try and get up and fall again with hands somewhat flailing:: haha, it was so funny!"  
  
Near Death Experience SPECIAL! (also told from the word of mouth, so it may be wrong):  
  
Parade formation: parade block, colorguard/dancers in front, 4 colorguard members holding the sign in front of the dancers, and 4(number varies) colorguard members in the back.  
  
What happened: eh. . .one of the colorguard members holding the sign did a face plant. I heard that she tripped, then let go of the sign so she wouldn't drag everyone else down with her.  
  
Whew! Good thing it wasn't the competition area!!!  
  
  
  
  
  
And THAT is only the beginning of the near death experiences we band people have to face.  
  
"It doesn't matter if you fall down, just as long as you get up fast enough." - [one of the] Flute's Section Leader (who fell down, because she tripped over someone's foot, while trying to avoid tripping/being tripped by someone else. Not too sure which one. . .don't know which tournament she fell in either :p)  
  
  
  
Next time: Pit is under appreciated? HECK YEAH!  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
[1] = this was on a track and the pit cart had to drive around the track, so the pit had to run and intersect the cart in time to set up.  
  
[2] = there's also a near death experience here, but it's not a part of the "falling" category.  
  
[3] = drumline consists of: 2 tenors, 4 snares and 4 bass drums 


	2. Pit Underapreciated HECK YEAH!

Near Death Experiences: Figurative and Nonfigurative by SailorSakura9  
  
Author's notes:  
  
These are all TRUE! Although some instances maybe overly exaggerated. . .heh heh heh. . .  
  
Disclaimer: My stories, my characters (actually, they're real people, I might change the names to protect the innocent. Oh yeah, if I used you as a character and you want to be recognized, tell me and I'll put your first and/or last name, if you want, or if you want to go by another name), plagiarize and die.  
  
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Pit is under appreciated? HECK YEAH! ~small full percussion chapter too (drumline + pit)  
  
Fact: Pit is under appreciated, that is TRUE, but our band wouldn't be as cool as it is w/out us ^_^  
  
Fiction: everyone LOVES the PIT! Everyone respects us, ever so much! Chimes are easy to get into and out of the field.  
  
Near Death Experience. . .oh what the heck, these are just a bunch of random Pit stories, not all of the are really "death experiences".  
  
Falling mallet during Tournament of Champions!  
  
Ha. . .that one happened to me. We were on the fourth moment, and my section leader, the "unofficial sub-section leader", and I had to switch from the bells to xylophone. (section leader = 1, "unofficial sub-section leader" = 2, me = 3)  
  
Big xylo to bells 1 --- bells to small xylo 3 --- small xylo to other set of bells 2  
  
Then back to  
  
Other set of bells to small xylo 2 --- small xylo to bells 3 --- bells to big xylo 3  
  
And right when I was moving from the bells to the small xylo, the one of black mallets placed between a Db and Bb fell in the gap! And during the biggest tournament of all! NOOOOOO! It seemed as if it was falling in slow motion too. So in fear of losing points, I dived down and got the mallet before anyone would notice.  
  
Apparently, my dad got it on tape, but you can barely see me. I'm at the waaaaaay left corner of the camera. All you see me do is move to the next instrument, dive down, and then get back up, and at the same time the camera is slooooowly moving right.  
  
Death Experience. . .about me again. . .well what the heck! They're going to be mostly about me since I'm in the pit and this chapter is dedicated to us front ensemble players! Wow, that sounded kinda conceited. . .but I don't mean it like that ^^;;  
  
It was the first football game this year (2002-2003). Friday afternoon, call time: 5:30. . .guess who forgot their band shoes, white T-shirt and hair tie? Yep, that's right. . .ME!  
  
AUGH! OH MY GOSH! I WAS SO SCARED! WHAT WAS I GOING TO DO? I WAS FREAKED OUT AND PRACTICALLY HYPERVENTALATING! THIS WAS THE FIRST TIME I FORGOT SOMETHING!  
  
THANK GOODNESS MY BAND DIRECTOR IS NICE (most of the time). He let me slide. He let me use an extra pair of band shoes, and I had to dress in what I was wearing, which was like, this bright red shirt and denim pants. So I totally stood out from the band when we were half dressed in our uniforms.  
  
Another Death Experience about. . .the WHOLE Pit (and not just me!)  
  
This is also a part of "Near Death Experience suji ni" in the previous chapter. This has got to be one of our worst, yet best experiences ever. I'm going to try and tell you every friggin' detail as best as I can (I mean, this happened months ago, and I decided to tell it now :p)  
  
The field was made of synthetic grass, which made it difficult to push the instruments on and off the field. It was especially hard to push the instruments with smaller wheels (a.k.a. the vibes and the chimes) which was a real pain because the chimes are always hard to push, even on a regular field, and one side of the vibes wheels were practically buried in accumulated dirt (from past shows). Not only that, one of the band parents took away our pit cart (a little red cart that holds miscellaneous instruments, like the cowbell and anything else we can fit on it) before we were able to take out everything we needed. And not only THAT, the speakers for the synthesizer weren't plugged in properly or something so THOSE didn't work!  
  
So now we were missing the synthesizer part and some percussive parts from our drum set. And not only that! Remember the tenor player falling and everyone basically stepping on/over him? (you know, I wonder how they were still able to stay in step. . .)  
  
Such a horrible, horrible show. . .but then again. . .we got FIRST! (or second. . .not too sure, all I know is that we defeated our "rival band" but our rival band has such nice people! They're fun to talk to! Really! We should have something like the TriWizard Tournament and learn about inter- band geeks cooperation!)  
  
So. . .yep. . .it was worst of shows and the best of shows. ^_^  
  
Ah yes. . .memories bring tears to my eyes. . .as soon as I can remember more I'll add on ^^;; but until then. . .read and review ^_^ 


	3. Winter Drumline SPECIAL!

Near Death Experiences: Figurative and Nonfigurative by Do As Infinity (SailorSakura9)  
  
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WINTER DRUMLINE SPECIAL!  
  
These aren't really "death experiences" but just little stories before our first show. Why am I doing a special on Winter Drumline, though? BECAUSE THIS IS OUR FIRST TIME! YEAH! So let's start from the beginning. . .  
  
Once upon a time  
  
(Need to think of a rhyme. . .)  
  
There was a band  
  
With a talented Pit and  
  
A decent Drumline  
  
Who practiced late till nine  
  
They decided that it would be fine  
  
To have our first Winter Drumline!  
Ok. . .that was probably the stupidest poem I've written. . .but who cares? I don't. Anyway, let's begin the story. . .err. . .whatever, let's just skip the background and start with the REAL stories of humor and. . .yeah, that's basically it.  
Sub-Ch 1: :: BURP ::  
  
It was the rehearsal day before the show. The drumline was practicing drill and the pit was just lounging around telling jokes and stuff. Our drill person (writer?) or our drum instructor (forgot who) was talking to our set drumline, so it was really quiet. Then. . . I let out a burp. . no wait, a belch. I expected it to be small, but nooooo, it was HUGE. It wasn't COMPLETELY my fault that it was so loud. . . I mean, we were playing in the back of the gym. So the drumline was facing the back of the gym and next to the gym are the girls' locker room (left, facing front of the back of the gym) and the boy's locker room (right, facing front of. . .you get the idea). The locker rooms extend past the back of the gym, so it's like a ginormous cubicle. Because of that, my burp just echoed EVERYWHERE. . .geez that was embarrassing (but funny).  
Sub-Ch 2: The FLOOR  
  
Yes. . .everybody loves the floor. . .:: glares at the floor :: that thing is friggin' 300 pounds! And we're supposed to unfold it and fold it again! Unfolding it is easy, but folding it back again. . .:: shudder :: Well anyway, we're practicing folding the floor (same night as the "burp" night) for the first time as a "full" winter line (2 people were away that rehearsal because they were at Catalina for science club and they wouldn't be able to make it for the show, and the floor was made the night before so not everyone was there) and it took us about. . .eh. . .it seemed like an hour or so, but it was more like oh. . .30 - 40 minutes -_-;;  
  
So we fold the floor and it takes us forever and then our drum instructor says, "Ok, you're going to have to take out the floor AND set up all the pit equipment in ONE MINUTE. You also have to get everything out of the gym in ONE MINUTE as well."  
  
That was so unexpected, but not compared to what he said next. . .  
  
"Ok, we're going to need more practice with the floor, so I'm going to have to make our call time [8:00 a.m.] a little earlier than we planned to . . . 7:00 a.m. Think of it as waking up the zero period."  
  
. . .  
  
- - - - THE NEXT DAY! - - - -  
  
Well, wasn't THAT an unexpected surprise. . .our drum instructor told our band director and I just barely got there at 7 and guess what! Our band director wasn't there! He ended up being 13 minutes late (how do I know? I estimated 15 and my friend said, "eh, close. 13.")  
  
No big deal (well, not really), we start practicing loading things into the gym and dragging in the little cart holding the floor. Our drum instructor tells us all this stuff about lines that we can't pass and stuff, etc. So the pit practice setting things up and carrying them out of the gym while the battery is learning the fast way to carry the floor out before we "properly" fold the floor.  
  
So we carried everything out and we began to fold the floor long ways. By the time we were done with that I looked around and said, "Uh. . .hey, where's the cart?"  
  
"Oh, you guys left the cart in the gym. So if this was a real show you would be losing points right now" (isn't it obvious our drum instructor said that? -_-;;)  
  
So we get the cart out and attempt to finish folding the floor. Let me tell you this, 300 lbs of floor stretched out is friggin' heavy, even if there are at least 14 other people helping. And what's worse is when you mess up a fold and you have to go back. And not only that, whatever you do, even if it just rained the day before, try not to get the floor wet. . .or else you're going to have mud all over your arms, especially if you're near the ends (HA! Lucky that wasn't me ^_^).  
  
Ok, so that took us about. . .uh. . .40 to 30 minutes and then our drum instructor says:  
  
"There's going to be an area outside the gym for you to fold your floor. Remember, you have to fold this up in five minutes because other bands are going to be coming out after you."  
  
Well. . .that was just. . .peachy -_-;;  
Sub-Ch 3: Going to the performance!  
  
Part One: It's Automatic  
  
Going was lots of fun! Especially since I spent most of the time sleeping. You see, my theory is that the more time you spend sleeping, the faster you'll get there. During this trip, I was wrong and right. Right because I wasted about an hour of the trip to get there; wrong because I had about another half hour to go. Not that it wasn't a bad ride, it was just the singing. . .  
  
My friend, who's a big J-pop/anime/game freak, was singing. Singing isn't bad, but it's bad when you're a guy who's voice already deepened and you're trying to sing high vocals like Utada Hikaru. What's worse, I was sitting right in front of him. Ah yes, I can remember the song perfectly, he was singing Automatic (some remix version to be exact). . .  
  
"It's automatic  
  
Soba ni iru dake de  
  
Sono me ni mitsumerareru dake  
  
Dokidoki tomaranai  
  
(I don't know why)  
  
No to wa ienai  
  
I just can't help"  
  
Don't get me wrong, Automatic is a great song, but it's not as great when it's sung in by a guy who can't reach those oh so high notes. (bad sounding, but funny. . .sometimes).  
  
But that's not the funny part yet, what was funny was that we had some rickety old school bus and it always bumped up and down. And the guy that was singing, he had to go to the bathroom really badly. To add to that, he had to go ever since the ride began. To add more to that, it was at least an hour and a half bus ride.  
  
Part Two: Dondé esta la escuela?  
  
We're about fifteen to twenty minutes away from the school. . .or were we? Where was the school? We were practically in the middle of nowhere. We exited the freeway, saw a pretty suburban place and thought 'Ok, cool, we must almost be there.'  
  
Turns out that we weren't. And it was really weird because we were leaving the suburban area and literally went to the middle of nowhere. It was just all desert. One of my friends claimed to have saw at least 2 dead animals. One was a cat and I don't know what the other one was. 0.o  
  
And then FINALLY we saw IT. We found IT. It was the school. And it was HUGE. This ginormous school sitting in the middle of nowhere. It could've been it's own junior college!  
Hmm. . .too much to write and too little time. . .you're going to have to find out what happens next in the next chapter of the Winter Drumline special. . .until then, sayonara, pzai jien, pzoi giin, adios, and bye bye!  
  
Don't forget to review! ~_^ 


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